Why weren't the Raspberries bigger?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by no opera star, Oct 5, 2011.

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  1. no opera star

    no opera star New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    London, UK
    For me, I Wanna Be With You is the closest thing to early Beatles magic. Yet it wasn't that popular. Heard it today and wondered about that.
     
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  2. buckeye1010

    buckeye1010 Zephead Buckeye

    Location:
    Dayton, OH
    Good question!!
     
  3. PhilBorder

    PhilBorder Senior Member

    Location:
    Sheboygan, WI
    Their name did them no favors. Hard to take any band serious named after small clustery fruit.

    With a Better Name they may have found a bit more success or higher critical opinion
     
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  4. Jon Busey-Hunt

    Jon Busey-Hunt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    You could ask the same question of several other power-pop bands or bands that have retroactively been called "power-pop" from the late 60s and 70s, such as Big Star, Badfinger, the Nazz, etc. I honestly don't know the answer -- the Raspberries and Badfinger both had hits, but neither really were as big as they probably *should* have been, given their eventual influence.
     
  5. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Wrong kind of fertilizer.
     
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  6. Cheepnik

    Cheepnik Overfed long-haired leaping gnome

    That sort of music was somewhat out of fashion in 1973, and let's face it, the Raspberries weren't exactly brimming over with personality or original ideas. I remember them being mostly regarded in their time as sort of silly.
     
  7. jonmayo15

    jonmayo15 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    Steve and I are on the same wavelength. Was about to post something similar.
     
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  8. wolf66

    wolf66 New Member

    Location:
    Austria
    Compared to other stuff from 1973 like Zeppelins "Houses of the Holy" they were rather outdated ......
     
  9. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Great hard rock pop songs, but not much more to me. It's not like they were Floyd or anything. Good band, though.
     
  10. Runt

    Runt Senior Member

    Location:
    Motor City
    Love their stuff...but the white leisure suits didn't help.
     

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  11. RickH

    RickH Connoisseur of deep album cuts

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    They were basically a made-for-AM-Radio singles band with a flair for Beatlesque melodies, but that ship had pretty much sailed by 1973, as others have pointed out. They were perfect ear-candy for the car radio but that was about the extent of it. After "Starting Over" didn't do well - with the exception of "Overnight Sensation" (I think it peaked around #18, but I could be wrong), the band packed it in. Which was too bad because that was their best album, sound quality notwithstanding.
     
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  12. Jon Busey-Hunt

    Jon Busey-Hunt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    Damn shame, IMO. That ship SHOULDN'T have sailed by 1973.
     
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  13. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    But it certainly beefed-up their compression, didn't it? ;)




    Now playing on Ariel Stream: Nickel Creek - Jealous Of The Moon
     
  14. JoeRockhead

    JoeRockhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I was only a little kid at the time, but they struck me as pretty big for a couple of years.
     
  15. Jon Busey-Hunt

    Jon Busey-Hunt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    You've probably heard the singles and not much else, eh? They were far more than just "great pop songs" -- they were amazing production-wise, melody-wise and instrumentally, and damned if Eric Carmen didn't have one of the best radio voices of the entire decade. They wrote their share of timeless classics -- and no, they weren't the Floyd and nor were they trying to be. The Beatles weren't the Floyd either, you know?

    The art of the 3-minute pop song was something that sadly temporarily died in the 70s, at least amongst the rock cognoscenti. By the time punk broke, a lot of these bands had either broken up or died -- you gotta figure an extant Raspberries, Big Star or Badfinger would have benefitted from the pop-focus of New Wave and the early 80s.

    And of course they did, posthumously -- so many bands cite these groups as an influence, now, that they're not unlike the Velvet Underground in terms of the obvious power of their work not being recognized until AFTER they weren't around anymore.
     
  16. RickH

    RickH Connoisseur of deep album cuts

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    Couldn't agree more, man. I was all into the music of the Raspberries, Big Star, Badfinger, etc. at that time.
     
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  17. When I first heard "Go All The Way" I assumed it was Wings. A lot of other people probably did, too.
     
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  18. JoeRockhead

    JoeRockhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    their drummer has to be one of the most underrated in rock history. Saw their reunion show in Cleveland in 2004 then at BB King in New York and was blown away by his playing and skill.
     
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  19. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    Probably not enough water or fertilizer. :D

    Sorry, I couldn't resist. Love the Rasberries.

    edit: I posted this before reading the thread. Nice to see that Steve and I share the same sick sense of humor, but I already knew that.

    double edit: You too jonmayo15. Perhaps a bit of flubber would help.
     
  20. Bender Rodriguez

    Bender Rodriguez RIP Exene, best dog ever. 2005-2016

    Agreed. They should have chosen a serious, rockin' name like The Beatles if they wanted to be popular. :winkgrin:
     
  21. Pureprairie1972

    Pureprairie1972 New Member

    Location:
    USA Heartland
    You're right, the suits didn't help at all. The suit ship had sailed years before 1973 (1965?)

    The appreciation for power pop was more in retrospect and while The Raspberries had some really fine music therir timing just wasn't right and the lack of promotion from Capitol was a deal killer too.

    The "Starting Over" album should have done much better with maybe "Play On" issued for the initial single then followed up with "Overnight Sensation." "Crusin' Music" bombed and wasn't a very good choice for a single. But by then Capitol really didn't care.
     
  22. jeffrey walsh

    jeffrey walsh Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, Pa. USA
    Didn't help the first album was a bit soft! Always remember hearing fans of Go All The Way at the time couldn't believe how lame the rest was. Side 3 was given to me for my 7th birthday. Still one of my faves along with Starting Over. The first two are a bit uneven but still contian some buried treasure. Most people could live with a best of.
     
  23. Col Kepper

    Col Kepper Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Texas, Where else?
    Kind of what happened to The Babys.
     
  24. jricc

    jricc Senior Member

    Location:
    Jersey Shore
    I agree, the timing wasn't right. I remember buying the Starting Over LP and my friends were like, "really?"

    I remember trying to sell them, "The Raspberries could rock, listen to "I Don't Know What I Want" they're channeling The Who!" but my friends didn't want to hear it, they were into ELP and Jethro Tull and the like, oh well...
     
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  25. ManFromCouv

    ManFromCouv Employee #3541

    The would have been big if they had hit with those songs in 1965. Badfinger are taken more seriously because they were a better, more talented band.
     
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